Gu Changyuan Enters the Secret Realm

On the other side, Gu Changyuan was still standing in the palace. Naturally, he heard the conversation between Jun Anshi and Hou Tianqi loud and clear.

After hearing the humblebragging in Hou Tianqi's words, Jun Anshi's calm and subtle retort left him feeling highly satisfied, bringing a playful smile to the corners of his mouth.

This was what his disciple should be like—when someone tried to show off, one had to fiercely show off right back.

With such massive capital to flaunt, how could they let the other party step on their heads?

Gu Changyuan naturally didn't take such trivial matters to heart.

It was just minor bickering between children, not worth his mental energy.

After Jun Anshi and the other six teams all stepped into the vortex and vanished from sight, Gu Changyuan lingered in the palace for a moment before blending into the crowd and slowly walking into the vortex himself.

The moment he stepped into the vortex, he only felt a brilliant light flare before his eyes.

To Gu Changyuan's perception, the light wasn't as dazzling and disorienting as it had been for Jun Anshi and the others.

The trajectory of every ray of light was clearly visible, and not a single trace of spatial fluctuation could escape his senses.

In the next instant, his vision cleared.

Gu Changyuan found himself standing on the branch of a towering giant tree.

Looking out from the branch, all he could see was an endless ocean of green—towering trees and intertwining vines, layered upon one another, stretching toward the horizon.

He took a deep breath, feeling the aura of his surroundings.

The concentration of spiritual energy was higher than the outside world; with every breath, he could feel spiritual power surging into his limbs and bones.

Gu Changyuan's spiritual sense spread out silently, taking in the situation for dozens of miles around.

Birds and beasts could be seen everywhere in the forest, spiritual herbs and immortal mushrooms grew in abundance, and many spiritual marrow stones brimming with dense spiritual energy were scattered about. It had everything one could ask for.

Sensing the world rules within the entire secret realm, Gu Changyuan clearly detected the aura of the laws of time.

The flow of time was slightly faster than the outside world, at a ratio of about one to two—one day passing outside meant two days passing in the secret realm.

For exploring a secret realm, this time difference meant more time for cultivation and more ample opportunities for exploration.

With a shift of his mind, seven distinct red dots appeared before his eyes, indicating the locations of the seven teams led by Jun Anshi, Jun Mukong, and the others.

This meant that, like the seven teams, he had been teleported to the same spatial layer, just at a different drop point.

Immediately after, seven voices rang out sequentially in his mind; it was the seven of them reporting their arrival status through their communication artifacts.

He had established the connection between these communication crystals, so he could naturally hear their conversations without them knowing.

Gu Changyuan split off a strand of spiritual sense to monitor the movements of the seven, ensuring they wouldn't encounter any danger beyond their ability to handle.

As for everything else—exploring a secret realm was a great opportunity for every cultivator to accumulate experience and hone their combat skills, let alone the fact that this was an Immortal Emperor's secret realm.

Therefore, unless his disciples faced a life-threatening situation, Gu Changyuan had no intention of intervening.

With a flash of his figure, Gu Changyuan vanished from the branch of the giant tree.

He began to explore this secret realm on his own.

...

Gu Xing'er stood amidst a stretch of ruined walls and debris, her gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

This place must have once been a magnificent building. Beneath her feet was a shattered stone floor, with weeds and moss growing thickly in the crevices between the slabs.

Scattered around were broken stone pillars, collapsed walls, and shattered rubble. Intricate carved patterns could faintly be seen on the pillars; although they had been eroded into obscurity by wind and rain, their former exquisiteness and splendor were still visible.

The ruins covered a significant area. Looking out, the broken walls and ruins stretched in all directions.

She walked at the forefront of the team, draped in the purple and cyan robes Gu Changyuan had crafted for her. The fabric was lightweight and embroidered with faint star patterns.

With her movements, the patterns would shimmer with a faint spiritual light.

Although she was petite in stature, her strength and her status in the Tianren Sacred Land ensured that the other disciples in the team dared not show the slightest negligence or disrespect.

To her right stood a female disciple dressed in plain white robes. Her aura was condensed, already at the peak of the Soul Formation realm.

She was the personal disciple of Elder Taiyin of the Tianren Sacred Land, named Luo Yuxia.

Luo Yuxia's talent was not considered top-tier within the talent-filled Tianren Sacred Land; she was even slightly inferior to Hou Tianqi of the Zichen Dynasty.

However, she was meticulous, steady in character, and careful and thorough in her actions. Moreover, she excelled in defensive and support-type cultivation methods, making her extremely reliable.

The main reason Gu Changyuan had grouped her with Gu Xing'er was so that she could look after Gu Xing'er.

Gu Xing'er had no issues with her strength and possessed extremely high combat talent, but she still lacked experience compared to Jun Mukong and Jun Anshi.

Although Jun Mukong and Jun Anshi had never participated in a secret realm exploration either, they had, after all, spent time in other sects before, giving them more practical combat experience and adaptability than Gu Xing'er.

Not to mention Gongsun Qingling and the others.

As family prodigies, they had been heavily nurtured since childhood and had rich experience in various temperings, trials, and secret realm explorations. In this regard, Gu Xing'er was far from comparable.

Therefore, Gu Xing'er needed a careful person by her side to remind her, assist her, and cover for any oversights.

Along the way, Gu Xing'er discovered quite a few things.

With every item she found, she would judge its value to decide whether the surrounding disciples needed to collect it.

Half an hour passed, and Gu Xing'er hadn't seen any powerful demonic beasts.

Occasionally, a few low-level demonic beasts would pass by in the distance, but upon seeing this team, they basically turned and fled.

Huh? There's the aura of a Void Refinement realm demonic beast.

Gu Xing'er suddenly stopped in her tracks, her brows furrowing slightly as she acutely sensed a thick aura fluctuation coming from not far away, carrying a mix of ferocity and lethargy.

She immediately raised her hand to signal the team to stop. With a flash, she executed a secret technique to conceal her figure, quickly arriving behind a ruined stone pillar to quietly peek at the source of the aura.

Entering her line of sight was a pitch-black demonic beast the size of a male lion. It looked remarkably like a domestic dog, yet it had sharp fangs and a bushy tail.

It was currently lying on the ground, sleeping.

Its eyes were tightly shut, its breathing even, and its belly rose and fell with each breath.

And beside it was an area shimmering with spiritual light.

It was a field of spiritual herbs. The area wasn't large, but the quality of the spiritual herbs inside was excellent—several crimson vermilion fruits hung on low shrubs.

Beside the vermilion fruits was a cluster of pale gold spiritual grass, and intermingled within the grass were a few small, entirely deep blue flowers with petals as thin as cicada wings.

Seeing these things, Gu Xing'er's eyes lit up slightly.

She struck it rich.